REVIEW: 75003 A-Wing Starfighter

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

So, this Wednesday I got some cash by selling some of my old textbooks. After class, I went down to Target and bought myself this set. And I decided to do a review.

The third separate-sale LEGO A-Wing (And the fourth official LEGO A-Wing all told) comes in the standard 2013 Star Wars box, with the Yoda packaging frame. The front shows the A-Wing streaking through space near the Forest Moon of Endor, flick-fire missiles launching, explosions all around. Standard for this theme, but not too shabby.

In the case of this set, the 1:1 images of the minifigs that I think of (and treat) as cut-out collectible cards are on the top of the box. Han Solo in his full Return of the Jedi garb (as denoted by the brown pants), Admiral Gial Ackbar, and -though the package simply calls him "A-Wing Pilot"- Arvel Crynyd, who flew as Green Leader during the Battle of Endor. Crynyd is the one here who's completely new; Ackbar has previously appeared in 7754 Home One, and Han previously appeared in this form in the big Battle of Endor set, and has appeared in other forms in many others. However, while there have been A-Wing pilot figures in the past, they've all represented Tycho Celchu. This time, we get Arvel Crynyd. The man who managed to steer his doomed A-Wing into the bridge of the Executor.

The back of the box shows some alternate action shots as well as views of the fighter from different angles and a detail map of the features. I love the background of the one pic, which shows a Mon Cal cruiser shooting the crap out of the second Death Star.

Here are the minifigures in person, and they look good. Each has an accessory. Han has one of the small blaster pistols, which is a very good match for his DL44. Admiral Ackbar has a clear mug, as he did in 7754. Arvel Crynyd has a large wrench, which in the previous separate-sale A-Wing sets was the accessory of the included mechanic. But, well, no mechanic in this set. Which is kind of a pity. Also a pity is that there's no blaster for Arvel.

One last note: Han's torso print, while overall good, demonstrates yet again that printing light flesh on black plastic isn't working and LEGO needs to fix how they do it or stop.

This is the front of the manual. As is expected, it duplicates the box photo with a bit of cropping to remove clutter.

This is the back of the manual. It is the WIN kid, the same one we've been seeing for a while now. And it's the kind of thing that gets old. I miss the LEGO Maniac. I wish they'd bring him back.

The angle of the photo is intentional; there's something on the manual I was obscuring.

Here is the inside of the manual. Decent, clear-cut, unambiguous coloring. Although amusingly, the light blay almost looks like old light gray.

The parts come in three numbered polybags plus sub-bags within the numbered ones. Sometimes when I get that, I'll go in order. Other times, I'll dump 'em all out in a big pile. Like so. I also pre-stickered most of the parts that stickers go on. The canopy was the trickiest to deal with, I had to try a couple of times to get it just right - the stickers for frame aren't long enough to go entirely from the bottom of one side to the bottom of the other, so finding the right amount of space to leave was trial and error. Everything else is easy, but that part is something to watch out for. And it could have been avoided by making the damn stickers longer. Still, with everything out and ready... Time to build.

Admiral Ackbar has good news for Arvel Crynyd: His fighter has been delivered. Also bad news... okay, not bad news, just annoying news: It had to be completely and totally dismantled. Luckily, the maintenance crew is here to help him reassemble it. Han Solo lounges nearby, watching.

Arvel and the maintenance crew are working well, it's already starting to come together. The core structure here is standard starfighter stuff.

Got most of the body together now, including the cockpit interior. The instrument panel's details are pretty much those of the original A-Wing set, but rather than a tampographed 2x2 roof brick, we've got a 2x1 cheese slope with a sticker on it.

Arvel Crynyd's got the removable reactor core and its cover assembled, ready to be loaded into the fighter. This is similar to, but less detailed and sophisticated than, the removable engine core from the A-Wing included in 7754 Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser. And like with that one, it's something iffy that comes at the expense of the first two A-Wing sets' rear storage compartment. Although with this set there is at least some space you can bung stuff in back there.

Nearly there. Now the focus is on assembling the cannons. They've got the slant that the movie A-Wings' guns were sometimes angled to. But.... They can't rotate. I would rather have them be able to rotate. I don't mind them being made with flick-fire missiles (although it would have been nice if the missile shafts had been cast in black here, or if the missiles had been separate things mounted on the ventral surface), but I do mind them not being able to rotate.

And, they're done! Overall, the fighter is great looking. Unlike the X-Wing, the A-Wing is supposed to be white so the consistent use of it rather than the original set's gray is a plus. The stickers provide a nice level of detail, and there's nothing annoying like STAMP going on. Although unfortunately the front outer stickers are mirrored compared to what they should be: The red flash belongs on the port side. Whoops. Oh well.

The set is a fun build and a good design, even if it does lose points for the static cannons and replacing the storage compartment with a lift-out engine core (And speaking of engines, it perpetuates the running flaw of using translucent neon green instead of translucent regular yellow or translucent orange for the drive glow pieces). The parts are all good. The new version of the half-cone canopy is lovely, as it means a dip to accommodate the hinge brick is no longer necessary. And the long curved 1-wide slopes help this set do the best job yet of capturing the A-Wing's "strawberry with rocket engines" look.

So in conclusion? This is overall a well-designed set with some good figures, including that are especially nice to get when you missed them the first time around, and very much worth getting. And I suggest getting it while it can still be found on retailer shelves. It's already pricey at $24.99 US, and once it's off the shelves the price tag will likely turn downright ugly. And I mean Palpatine-level ugly.

Edited March 19, 2014 by ZeldaTheSwordsman
Added poll at member's request.

[Sir Brickalot]

Nice review! Got this set last year and I love it.

[SinWolf89]

Hi! I really appreciate your review! I have benn thinking about buying one of this set, mostly for the minifigures but I still had doubts. Thanks to you now I'll buy one as soon as possible ;)

[Kaitan]

The stickers provide a nice level of detail, and there's nothing annoying like STAMP going on.

Sorry to sound thick but what does STAMP mean?

Nice review, I bought this set mainly for the figs, but you've tempted me to actually build it :)

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Sorry to sound thick but what does STAMP mean?

Nice review, I bought this set mainly for the figs, but you've tempted me to actually build it :)

Stickers Across Multiple Parts. Which, when it happens, means that unless you cut the stickers at the brick seams with a sharp-bladed hobby knife, you can't separate the affected bricks without ripping the sticker. It doesn't happen much nowadays, but there were a lot of sets in the First Age of Stickers that were guilty of it.

[rollermonkey]

Hah! I just bought this about two weeks ago!

It's been a long time since my minifigs helped me build a set, though.

:)

[BimmerBoy]

Good review, good set. I like the ship a lot, much better than the 6207 I sold to help buy this one. It looks better and is sturdier; great for my kids to fly around and chase the latest version of the TIE Fighter.

Arvel is great. I did not have Ackbar, so its nice to see him pop up in another, cheaper set than Home One. The inclusion of Han has me scratching my head, though, since he's in the Ewok Village (really wish they would have given the EV Han the camo trenchcoat!). I would've preferred a more generic ROTJ Rebel figure (doubt LEGO would give us Ackbar and another specific ROTJ figure like Mon Mothma, etc) or even a basic droid (R5 head) or basic mechanic fig. But, I sold Han to a fellow local AFOL to recoup a few dollars to put towards the summer Star Wars wave that will really put the hurt on my wallet!

Edited March 2, 2014 by BimmerBoy

[Lego dad]

Han makes this set more attractive, especially to children who won't be getting MF or Ewok Village.

[BimmerBoy]

Han makes this set more attractive, especially to children who won't be getting MF or Ewok Village.

I don't know, Han has been around long enough for people to acquire one way or another. My kids care about the difference between Hoth Han, Falcon Han and Sarlaac Han. They don't care that much whether Falcon Han has blue or brown pants, etc. And, based on my observations at the local Lego Store, Clone Wars and Prequel Trilogy sets in the A-Wing's price range seem more attractive to children anyways.

Also, the inexpensive Micro Fighter Falcon has Han.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I don't know, Han has been around long enough for people to acquire one way or another. My kids care about the difference between Hoth Han, Falcon Han and Sarlaac Han. They don't care that much whether Falcon Han has blue or brown pants, etc. And, based on my observations at the local Lego Store, Clone Wars and Prequel Trilogy sets in the A-Wing's price range seem more attractive to children anyways.

Also, the inexpensive Micro Fighter Falcon has Han.

Well, I don't know about children, but I do know about me. Han was one of the things that attracted me to buy this set instead of depositing the money and looking for a good eBay deal on 6207 or 7134. Mind you, I stuck his head and hands in a crate to use the body as a change of clothes for my Sarlaac Han from 2000 because I prefer the original face design (and my first fleshie Han from 4504 disappeared eight years ago), but having an actual Falcon Han complete with one of the blaster pistols was definitely a factor in my picking this set over its predecessors.

[Godtshep]

Good review. My son got this half price at Sainsbury's a few months ago. Great set!

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Good review. My son got this half price at Sainsbury's a few months ago. Great set!

Thank you.

Edited March 19, 2014 by ZeldaTheSwordsman

[FRGCWRU]

-Edited-

Edited May 27, 2022 by FRGCWRU

[miles teg]

I love this set, got it a year or so ago. I've just recently modded the cockpit and the gunpods to be more detailed ( and got rid of the wretched flick fires)

[Blondie-Wan]

I like this set, but I do wish that as long as it were coming with three minifigures, at least two of them would something other than specific, unique "named" characters. I could deal with having a bunch of Arvel Crynyds if I were to buy multiples, since it's easy to use them to represent a bunch of different pilots (especially with a bit of judicious head-swapping), but I'd rather have a single Admiral Ackbar and a bunch of "generic" Mon Calamari rebels rather than the other way around, and of course Han Solo's inclusion in this set is a bit of a head-scratcher all around. I mean, okay, so he and A-wings were in the Home One hangar together, and this set can accurately recreate the thrilling moment when Han, uh... walks by an A-wing on the way to Tyderium or something, I guess, but if they had to include a random third rebel, I'd rather it had been a forest camo'ed soldier, or a rebel tech, or another pilot, or really just about anyone other than one of the main heroes we already have umpteen-seven of and who had little to do with this particular vessel. But oh, well.

The minifigure selection kept me from getting multiples of these. I might have done so anyway had I been able to find them at good deals, but I seldom did, and now the set is discontinued and getting scarce in stores. I may try to get one or two more if I can, but I do have many more urgent LEGO priorities.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[Blondie-Wan]

Incidentally, most of the review images aren't showing up for me. Is this the case for everyone, or is it just me?

[Tariq j]

Incidentally, most of the review images aren't showing up for me. Is this the case for everyone, or is it just me?

You're not alone, some aren't showing up for me either.